Questions! Always with the questions...

[AnyaTheBlue]

I finally had an opportunity to try out Riddle of Steel last night.  My brother and I each generated a character and we duked it out.

Fantastic.  We're both hooked.  His strength 7 quarterstaff weilding guy took my sword & shield warrior down in the first bout, but I was able to rally and get him on our second and third tries.

Don't get hit, indeed!

I do have some questions, of course:

1) Spiritual attributes & refreshing.  I'm confused.  I know these can go up and down with role-playing.  But in a few places it sounds like when you use dice from one of these, those dice are *gone*, and they refresh either at the next session, or at the Seneschal's whim.  Is that right?  If you have passion: love of husband: 3 and you are defending him, does that 3 dice pool go down to zero dice, which will refresh back to 3 later?  Or does it stay at 3?  Or does it vary?

2) Igniting a candle.  How do you do this with magic?  Motion?  What level?

Anyway, thanks in advance, for the answers, and thanks for a fantastic game, Jake!

[Jake Norwood]

1) Spiritual attributes & refreshing.  I'm confused.  I know these can go up and down with role-playing.  But in a few places it sounds like when you use dice from one of these, those dice are *gone*, and they refresh either at the next session, or at the Seneschal's whim.  Is that right?  If you have passion: love of husband: 3 and you are defending him, does that 3 dice pool go down to zero dice, which will refresh back to 3 later?  Or does it stay at 3?  Or does it vary?

Luck "goes away" when burned for a success. When rolled it just gets "used" and can't be re-used (but it can be burned) for the rest of the night. All other SAs are just "adds" to your rolls that don't go away unless spent (see "using SAs vs. Spending them in Book Three)

2) Igniting a candle.  How do you do this with magic?  Motion?  What level?

Motion 2, I think.

Jake

[Mike Holmes]

Note that in his answer to the first question Jake dodges the question of refreshing. A strict interperetation of not needing to refresh could be that you add the dice to every roll, so they could get added to all rolls in an exchange. This makes them very powerful, and encourage maneuvers that use more rolls.

Another common interperetation is that they add to your CP at the beginning of an Exchange, and then again to that pool whenever it refreshes. This is less dramatic, but still powerful.

Mike

[tralese]

Would it really be just motion 2 Jake?  Or would it also require vision 3 to be able to see the air you are trying to use to create the friction?

Indeed Luck is spent: 1 blown permanently for automatic success, or 1 which will return at the end of the session to add another die to your roll.

All other Spiritual attributes just add dice to the roll or combat pool when it matters to the PC.

[Anthony I]

Would it really be just motion 2 Jake?  Or would it also require vision 3 to be able to see the air you are trying to use to create the friction?

I think trying to add science to the magic rules can only lead to more problems.  I remeber a while back a several threads that discussed TROS magic, with scientific interpretations of the magic rules, check out The Glowing Staff Problem or TROS magic system and spells for a look at the past coverage.  Some of the percieved problems may just come down to individual interpretation of the rules, example- I don't read Vision 3 as enabling you to see at a microscopic level, while others do.

Tony

[AnyaTheBlue]

Thanks for all the answers, everybody!

And thank you, Tony, for the links to those older discussions on science vs. magic.  I think you're probably right, adding too much science kind of ruins the 'flavor'.

How about this?  You have to use Motion to draw the fire out of flammable things, like it was phlogiston inside the matter?  That makes a sort of primitive conceptual sense, doesn't change the mechanics (you still use motion, don't have to use vision), and keeps some flavor.

Likewise, maybe you could use Motion to draw Lightning from the clouds in a similar manner.

I wonder if it's a good thing that this is reminding me of Glorantha and the whole "Is Nysalor or Arkat really Gbaji?" sorts of arguments it spawns... :)

[Morfedel]

the only problem with tossing out scientific explanations is the example spell Fold from the text, which sounds like you are reading the specs of a Star Trek transporter! :)

[Draigh]

In my game, I tossed all the scientific stuff out the window... "Fold" went with it.
It feels better that way.

[Anthony I]

the only problem with tossing out scientific explanations is the example spell Fold from the text, which sounds like you are reading the specs of a Star Trek transporter! :)

I would say that the weakest part of the TROS magic system was the inclusion of science/quasi-science to try to explain magic effects.  This addition seems to cause most of the arguments.  Also, why would you want to limit magic with science?

Tony

[Shadeling]

the only problem with tossing out scientific explanations is the example spell Fold from the text, which sounds like you are reading the specs of a Star Trek transporter! :)

I would say that the weakest part of the TROS magic system was the inclusion of science/quasi-science to try to explain magic effects.  This addition seems to cause most of the arguments.  Also, why would you want to limit magic with science?

Tony

Because it is a Realistic Low Fantasy World/Game? Look how the game handles Missile weapon fighting-realisitc time scales. Same with Melee weapons. It is how TROS is-a scientific/realistic approach to a fantasy rpg.

[Salamander]

In my game, I tossed all the scientific stuff out the window... "Fold" went with it.
It feels better that way.

I would do something like change the name of the spell, perhaps call it "The Door of Apollo", "Mercury's Dash" or "Aristotle's Step" or something like that.

I have to consider that, from what I have been told, the Greeks were aware of the concept of the speed of light. They knew it was blindingly fast and they observed that sound and light travelled at different velocities by observing lightning. They also saw that the faster a vessel travelled through the water the more work it had to do to travel faster. They also saw that the faster and harder a vessel had to work, the more wear and tear the vessel suffered. They also knew of friction and that it applied to most things, if not all of them. Also, consider the fact they had the concept of the atom, heck, it's thier word! We see that the spell "FOLD" can still be "used", even based roughly upon the phenomenon the Greeks observed and recorded.

[Draigh]

I capped Movement: Speed: 3) at the speed of sound.  Around 375 yds/ second.  That's still hellaciously fast.  But that's just part of my propensity to tweak everything I buy.

[prophet118]

i can agree.... speed of light is way to fast... hell... just a spell of one on an enemy cvould fry him..

speed of sound, sounds about right... thugh can still be detrimental to the human body..

id called Fold... "Seven League Stride"....

theres always a spell around called that